Breakfast for All, Over Easy Closes Seed Round To Expand Beyond Bars

After two years on the market, breakfast bar maker Over Easy is looking beyond its core category with the goal of becoming a convenience-oriented brand “for the masses,” according to Kyle Maggard, founder and CEO.

The timeline of that mission has been accelerated with the recent close of a $5 million seed round, led by Dris Upitis, of Ocho Capital, with additional participation from a group of six investors, including Minnesota Vikings’ star wide-out Adam Thielen.

The veteran-owned company currently produces a six-SKU line of oat-based bars that feature ingredients including egg whites, nut butter and honey. The bars contain between 220 to 230 calories, depending on the variety, and are available in Banana Nut, Peanut Butter, Apple Cinnamon, Toasted Coconut, Vanilla Matcha and Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate for an MSRP of $2.49 each. According to Maggard, Over Easy will roll out a “lighter” 100-calorie mini line next week and introduce its seventh SKU – Oatmeal Raisin – in July.

Maggard, a West Point graduate and former Army captain, founded Over Easy on the premise that a good breakfast sets the tone for the rest of the day. The product itself fits alongside brands like Mooski within the growing clean-ingredient oat bar category, though Over Easy is shelf stable.

“The goal for Over Easy is to cater and include all diets. We are working on and exploring plant based options, but I’ll say they haven’t been the core focus for us right now just because of limitations on taste,” Maggard explained. “We’re building Over Easy, yes, for the health conscious consumer… but we’re also building the company for the masses as well, for people that aren’t just solely focused on the newest trend in food and beverage”

The round’s lead investor, Dris Upitis, also aligns with Over Easy’s goal to self-betterment. In addition to serving as portfolio manager at Ocho Capital, Upitis is the co-founder of The Atlas Project, a not-for-profit that provides personal growth and self-awareness training sessions with the goal of helping people pursue their passions and contribute to the success of others.

The new portion-controlled line and SKU is just the beginning of Over Easy’s growth, said Maggard, who explained that the funding will allow the brand to enter a range of nutrient dense product formats that make breakfast easy for all consumers regardless of dietary restrictions. Although those innovations are still in the works, convenience and taste will be prioritized as the products are developed around consumer feedback.

“There’s so much information out there on the internet of people saying exactly what they want or what they wish was better,” Maggard said. The company has conducted surveys and engaged customers directly, but Maggard said he prefers to employ a multifaceted approach when working on new products.

“I spend hours a week in grocery stores, just walking the aisles looking for inspiration,” he said. “[I look to] see what’s missing, what could be improved upon, where’s the customer not being served? [Our innovation process] is a combination of actually talking to customers and then a whole bunch of market research beyond that.”

During that process, Maggard also noticed a disparity between the more conservative design of healthy breakfast options and older, legacy products which featured more “fun, louder and exciting packaging.” A bit of consumer insight, mixed with his grocery aisle observations, prompted a total branding overhaul last year that moved the bars away from their original white “almost clinical, and medicinal” packages to something more fun.

“Just because you’re healthy doesn’t mean you have to be boring,” Maggard joked. “The feedback we got from customers is that it doesn’t really feel like a morning product. If you think of your ideal morning, it’s bright, it wakes you up, it’s inspiring and vibrant. We wanted the brand to reflect the feeling that we wanted to give customers in the mornings.”

Although it aims to cater to every consumer, Over Easy has also found a niche among both college and professional athletes. Collegiate athletic programs were among the brand’s first customers in January 2020, and the bars are now supplied to over 20 NFL locker rooms and “a few dozen” MLB, NBA, WNBA and NHL locker rooms, Maggard said.

Over Easy is also sold online and at retail including Wegmans, Giant Foods in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, and just last month, expanded to Whole Foods nationwide. Maggard said the new funding will also drive its distribution growth as it looks to take on club stores in the near future.

“Breakfast is a habitual meal,” Maggard said. “It’s the only meal that people will eat or drink the same thing, every single day, and be excited about it because it means they don’t have to make a decision in the morning. They can focus that time, or that brainpower, on something more important… it’s [one less thing] that they don’t have to worry about. Breakfast products really lend themselves well to the club channel because people are stocking up for the next two or three weeks.”